Television viewing is increasingly on-demand to deliver requested media content to viewers. On-demand media content can include any type of recorded media, such as television programs, recorded programs, on-demand videos, and pay-per-view movies, any of which viewers can request for viewing when convenient rather than at a scheduled broadcast time. As on-demand media content is requested more often and by an increasing number of viewers, content providers face an increasing need to provide adequate session capacity to timely deliver the requested media content with a high quality of service.
A typical household may have four, five, or more, television viewing areas and/or rooms with televisions, most of which consumers expect to have television content provided by a television programming content provider. In an IP-based television (IPTV) system, a client device does not include a physical tuner like a conventional television set-top box, for example. Rather the television programming content and other media content is delivered to the household as IP-based data via a communication network.
In a multi-room viewing system, a primary device typically receives the television programming and other media content as the IP-based data, and then allocates the content to the other television system client devices of the viewing system. The primary device manages viewing and recording conflicts for the viewing system, such as recording times and bandwidth conflicts between the various data streams that are allocated to the other client devices and to viewer requested actions, such as a request for a data stream to view live television, receive video on-demand, listen to an audio channel, and the like.
The primary device of a multi-room viewing system also controls or manages the DVR (digital video recorder) functionality and utility in the overall system because the other client devices do not have the same DVR functionality and utility as the primary device in the system. If the primary device of a multi-room viewing system is missing or taken out of service, the other client devices of the viewing system may be rendered unusable, or unable to manage bandwidth and media content allocation conflicts.